A light emitting diode (LED), or other point light source, pointed towards the center of a target area positioned at close range from the light source creates a higher irradiance level on the target in areas closer to the LED. If uniform light intensity across the target area is desired, optical control of the light emitting from the light source can be employed.
Known optics for LEDs collect the light from the LED and direct the light in a circular or elliptical pattern. These known optics are used to create narrow to medium beam angle distributions of light. Since the optics create only narrow to medium beam angle distributions of light, these known optics create a hotspot directly in front of the LED, thus making it difficult to create large area uniform beam patterns at close range.
It is desirable to provide an apparatus that can distribute a desired beam pattern.